I wanted to take a moment to leave a heartfelt review for R. Tate, who works in Offer in Compromise…read morewith the IRS. Like many people, I was honestly scared going into this process. The IRS has a reputation that can feel overwhelming, and I chose to complete my Offer in Compromise on my own instead of hiring a CPA or accountant--which made it even more stressful and time-consuming. Throughout the process, I had a lot of questions and moments of uncertainty, but R. Tate was absolutely incredible. She was patient, kind, and took the time to answer every question I had without ever making me feel like a burden. Even when things got complicated and I had to go through the appeals process--which ultimately ended in my favor--she continued to support me and guide me. What truly meant the most to me was that she went out of her way, even calling me after hours (despite being two hours ahead), just to personally let me know that my application had been approved. I was in tears. That moment meant everything to me. I know the IRS can get a bad reputation, but R. Tate is one of those rare people who genuinely cares and goes above and beyond to help others. Her compassion, professionalism, and dedication made a very stressful situation feel manageable, and I will always be grateful for that. Thank you, R. Tate. I truly appreciate you more than words can express.

I file my own taxes and I am strongly opposed to taxes but for the sake of living here I have to…read morefile them and I do not want to go to jail. I recently got a notice from the IRS saying that I owe " X" amount of money. The thing is though is that I paid my taxes when I amended them in February and they took out my money from my bank account. I get a letter saying that I owe the same amount that I paid initially the only difference is that they added 34 cents on the IRS end. So all these guys really coming after me over 34 cents perhaps ? I wanted to call and correct them on this because I'm being held hostage about paying my taxes yet again before a certain deadline or I'll be paying more interest for something that they should see in their own account that they took out of mine. Unfortunately there is no one to call and navigating the phone call it's like walking on eggshells . I want to say I've tried about 50 times to call the IRS and I was unable to get a hold of a single human. Overall, I know I will get this money back one way or another. Maybe one day we will be like all other countries where we don't need to pay for having to get our taxes filed and like most modern countries do. Whatever happened to those 86,000 agents that you hired last year that you're not talking about this year? Did he all get laid off because of AI taking their jobs? Do better! Oh! And Taxation is theft

This is a review of public access to DHS, not the way DHS accomplishes its mission…read more I took a taxi from downtown DC to an appointment at DHS. The taxi driver had never been there before and didn't know the procedures to drop off a passenger. It sure didn't help when the guard started shouting at the taxi driver instead of calmly explaining what he wanted him to do. Once inside the visitor processing office, the folks were relatively easy going and pleasant. Note: American University Park is not a part of DC where taxis cruise the streets, especially on rainy days. After the meeting, I finally walked to Massachusetts Avenue where after another five minutes a taxi picked up this wet passenger.

To be clear this is a review of the facility and parking and not a review of how DHS does business…read more I came here a couple of times for meetings with my GOVT customer. Since I am a Defense Contractor I have to get a badge and go through their security. I must say they are very polite and efficient. They get you screened and badged up rather quickly. The issue with this location in parking. They do not have visitor parking and there is not even enough parking for those who work daily in the facility which has several BLDG's. I have had to circle around for over 10 minutes hoping for an open spot on the road in front of the facility both times I have came here. I will now add 30 minutes onto my schedule to allow for me to find parking when I come here. The facility is made up of a hodge podge of BLDG's that are in OK shape. Since DHS is a fairly young entity the BLDG's were renovated when they took them over. I don't mid coming here except for the parking issues. I guess you could Uber here but it is kinda of out of the way from hotels and would be expensive. I didn't see any taxis around either.

Our nation's Capital houses many of the necessary departments to run our country. The building is…read morebeautiful and it has the Albert Gallatin statue in front.

My brother in law works here and told me about how tours are free. So naturally, this was added to…read moreour visit list! Be aware--you do have to log into their website and sign up for tickets for the tour--they will not let you in without this reservation. They do have a gift shop of sorts, but they do not sell water--just an fyi. They give a guided tour and it was so very neat! They tell you all about the money printing process from start to finish, how to tell the difference between real vs counterfeit. They discuss the reasons that bills change every few years. You get to see them actually working the ginormous printing machines. I highly recommend visiting on your next DC trip!

Yes, the United States Department of Agriculture has an excellent cafeteria. Who knew?…read more Responding to some A-frame signs planted haphazardly outside the tremendous, rambling, never-ending USDA complex, we finally found Wing 3, which contains the cafeteria. And we were starved ! Whoa, not so fast there, guys! Show me some valid, government issued ID, and plant this Visitor sticker on your chest. Then, can we eat? No. We now are Official Visitors, and must empty our pockets, remove our belts, and pass through the metal detector. The shoes remained on. All this for a cafeteria? It was worth it. The cafeteria is just down the hall to the left. Yegawds, the number and size of the food islands were astounding. Talk about multi-culti? Foods I could not readily ID, although I'm sure they had to pass through the metal detector. Salad bars, pasta bars, burgers, hot dogs, Mexican, Indian, fried food, pizza, BBQ meats, veggies, sushi, bento, bagels, breads, fresh fruits, desserts, coffee, tea, milk, cold drinks, hot drinks, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. As I loaded my tray, I wondered how they could possibly keep track of all the different prices. Easy peasy, they charge by the ounce, or in the case of my tray, by the pound. I had loaded $12 worth, including a Minute Maid lemonade, on my tray. Could not finish all. The food was really good. I'll give it my USDA Prime stamp.

The only federal agency along the National Mall, the USDA used to be the world's largest building…read morewhen it was built in the first part of the 20th century. It's not open to the public, but after reading an article about a man named Wayne Connelly, I reached out about seeing the official unofficial museum inside. Wayne texted me a time and I joined a small group on a 3 hour tour of the building and museum of items from the USDA's history. It was a special and meaningful tour!

Very good experience with "Anabela's Gallery Fine Art Studio". Both the art and framing are high…read morequality and she is responsive to her clients.

False leading statement that says $5 to join. When I went to pay the $5 it tried to charged my…read morecard $60. Glad my card made contact with me before paying, Bad Business!

Never thought I'd give a government agency high marks, but here's five stars for my passport…read morerenewal. I did expedited service thinking I'd get my passport in about 14 days but I got my new passport in 2 days! They sent me an email letting me know they received my application, and sent another email letting me know it was approved. I got my passport that day! Thank you for the excellent service. This is one instance in which my expectations were surpassed.

Security was slow and the space where the book fair was happening was too small for the attendance…read more Also, they have a huge Lichtenstein?

It's just very unsanitary for human beings. No one should have to live in those conditionsread more

As an activist for Children's rights, I have on occasion been incarcerated for acts of civil…read moredisobedience, that is in fact part of my job, to bring about awareness of a terribly unjust family and juvenile court system. America's ANTI-family and Juvenile courts make rulings which in all honesty result in the abuse of our children and they make these rulings for what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the states, counties and their employees every year. In any event, The jail in Washington DC, is one of the worst jails it is definitely a real s*** hole. Everything is stainless steel, I mean everything including the beds. This is obviously done so that they can keep the place clean and free of infestation. The inmates receive nothing, no pillows, no tooth brush, no tooth paste, nothing. I was not afforded the luxury of staying in my cell and relaxing in DC they have a very high turn over, especially so with activists. Again they institute scare tactics big time by leading you to believe you are a terrible criminal who has committed a crime against the government when in all reality, they are the criminals. We all have a first amendment right, it should in fact be our most important right but the government would of course rather you did not have or exercise that right The jails in DC are very over crowded. Days are spent moving prisoners from jail cell to jail cell. Some cells are crowded to the point where 50-60 men are in a 12x12 cell, obviously one can not even sit down in that environment. The toilets are over flowing, hence the terminology, s*** hole. These jails are over crowded so they have a high turn over. Judges work 7 days a week and at least well into the night. This is pretty cool because in most counties if you are arrested on a Friday, that's it, you will not see a judge until Monday. Depending on your crime, that is if you have committed one in their state and not being extradited, you will see a judge within 72 hours, that is the law. However, Washington, DC is over crowded so they want to get you out. Of course everybody pays a fine, COURT IS AFTER ALL AN INCOME GENERATING BUSINESS. The food was sub par as jails go. Apparently the local inmates think it is pretty good but they have apparently not visited a true 5 star jail. The property is secure, the jailers are OK, nothing special here either. The new scam in many jails are the phone systems. Yes, you can communicate via telephone with an outside party but they must put a rather large deposit into the systems account. Calls are about $1.00 per minute, definitely a scam, fortunately the ACLU is onto this scam and should have this shut down or at least a fair rate charged . Speaking of the ACLU, all jails nationwide are now mandated to have panic buttons in the cell, I did not see a panic button... Like any jail, the objective is to scare you into not wanting to go and make you miserable while you are there so that you do not want to come back, Jails are all solitary, only the high tech, long term jails or prisons offer additional comforts. Butte County is just a jail, no big deal. If you are in jail for a righteous cause like children's rights, no one can break you down. I rate this jail a 1 on a scale of 1-5. They could have better food and treat their prisoners better. It is not necessary to be an ass and a jailer, I mean, you met your just being an ass.

My appointment was at 10:20 to complete a Representative Payee application. The process took less…read morethan an hour and I walked out the door by 10:59. Ms. Gallagher was kind, efficient and very knowledgeable and she throughly explained the process and gave me pointers on how to succeed in my new role.

This scam is an oldie but goodie whereby a very authoritative "Detective" from the FBI calls from a…read morespoofed number to inform me that my SS number has been used in a crime along the Texas/Mexico border and my account has been frozen until I cough up a trove of personal information and perhaps pay a fine of $2,000 to make the entire incident go away. I would have played along just for grins but I was busy and just told the "Detective" that I would call the local FBI and SS offices in the morning to confirm. Click. And just like that my career as a border bandito and fugitive came to an end. Basically. If the SS administration wants to get in touch with you they'll write a letter instructing you how to respond or where to call. If a call of this type finds you it is one hundred percent bogus. Hang up... providing no information whatsoever. There's no shortage of scams out there ranging from 50% off your cable bill (for a small fee) to more insidious hackers trying to infiltrate your PC or laptop with malware all in the name of "security." Stay safe out there. Five stars just because.

The Social Security Administration is located in Washington D.C. Social Security has local offices…read moreall over the United States. Initially I had to visit the office to set up my retirement benefits when I retired. Since then Social Security has developed a website and made many technical improvements over the years. All of my business is handled online. I also get periodic emails from Social Security. Today to my surprise I received this email applauding the passage of the President's Big Bill. I have to admit I was hoping that the campaign promise made regarding tax relief for Social Security recipients would come to fruition. As much of a skeptic as I am, I'm not getting excited until the dollars are in my bank account! There's two things for certain DEATH and TAXES!

I am a guardian for a loved one. I had an appointment to have two details taken care of. It was a…read morechallenge to get a live person on the phone. I held for 45 minutes and then opted to get a call back. Someone called me back. The employee helped make an appointment. I thought I would have to make an appointment in the state my loved one lived in. That was not the case. So I made an appointment near me in DC. The appointment time was for 11:32, not 11:30 - but 11:32. It was explained that there might be a slight delay in between visits. I showed up an hour and a half early since I had a ride. The building is behind The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. I was happy to have been dropped off. There isn't nearby metered parking. Smithsonian Metro is close by. There is a check in kiosk when you enter. You can use the kiosk or check in on your phone. Cell reception was only noticeable by the window. You can scan a QR code to check in on your phone. I checked in at the kiosk. Numbers are not called in numerical order. They are called by your appointment time. There are approximately 60 metal seats that are relatively comfy. There is always a guard in the room and at the exit door. The restroom was clean. The only seat with an electrical outlet is the first one by the entrance (smaller section of seats). My number was called before my appointment time. Numbers are not called in any particular order. Number 19 could get called before number 2. The employee verified some details and then had me return to the lobby area. If you need to provide any information during your appointment, look it up before you go. My phone was in SOS mode until I left the building. I was called for my appointment on time. There was more privacy at the windows across from all the seats in the waiting area. The employee was very nice. He helped with all the paperwork I needed for my tasks.

Solid first experience with this office of the Social Security Administration. Organized (mostly)…read morewith a good system for handing out wait tickets. Staff is great, from the security guard that was so helpful, to the bureaucrat with the sense of humor that helped me out with my Social Security card. (I suppose having a sense of humor while dealing with the public is a must!) Please note that the line starts forming before the office opens at 0900. And that they have reduced hours on Wednesday. In and out in less than an hour while dealing with the government - I call that a win (that never happens at the DMV!)!

HORRIBLE!!! Was on hold for 1:55.40 seconds and they still never picked up!! Can't find proper…read morehelp anywhere anymore. Y'all should be ashamed!